THE LINE FOR SEASONAL FLU SHOTS SNAKED THROUGH BUILDING A AT THE FAIRGROUNDS AND EXTENDED WELL INTO THE PARKING LOT IN OCTOBER. THE MARIPOSA COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT RAN OUT OF H1N1 VACCINE DURING ITS CLINICS HELD IN NOVEMBER. A SECOND ROUND OF VACCINATIONS IS PLANNED FOR JANUARY. GAZETTE PHOTO BY JILL BALLINGER The Mariposa County Health Department will start a second round of influenza vaccination clinics in January. Public Health Officer Dr. Charles Mosher gave the board of supervisors an update on the pandemic H1N1 flu at Tuesday’s meeting.

Dr. Mosher had good news for the board about infection rates in the county. He said outpatient visits to local doctors and clinics have been falling in the past several weeks. “We’re now on the downslope,” he said of the fall outbreak. There were some 20 people a day seeking medical care for the flu at the height of the local outbreak. Now, Dr. Mosher said, clinic visits are down to single digits each day.

Mariposa County’s infection rate appears to mirror California’s. Dr. Mosher said that about 14 percent of the state’s population became ill this fall. Twenty out of 100,000 sick people had to be hospitalized because of H1N1. “That’s just about what we had here,” Mosher explained.

Four people were hospitalized in Mariposa County. Two of those ended up in internsive care units. One of those people stayed there for three weeks.

Last week alone, 31 people in California died from complications of H1N1. The previous week, there were just 12 deaths. Dr. Mosher said he was notified on Tuesday morning that someone in Tuolumne County had succumbed to the illness. To date, there have been no deaths in Mariposa County because of the flu.

While things are quiet now, Dr. Mosher knows that the actual flu season is not yet here. “We’re concerned that there will be another wave,” he told the board.

The health department is preparing for more vaccination clinics in January and sticking to its plan of “handwashing, staying home when you are sick and vaccination.”

The first time around, Mariposa County fared well. The county ranks 10th in California for vaccination coverage. “We’ve done pretty darn well,” Dr. Mosher told the board. “In fact we ran out of vaccine at the last clinic.” New shipments of the vaccine are starting to arrive.

Dr. Mosher said his department may try to target children by offering clinics at school in the new year. He did clarify some news that one manufacturer was recalling some vaccine. “There is no danger,” Dr. Mosher told the board. “We did not receive any of those lots.”